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Legal Validity Of The Case Against Brain Scans Essay

1446 Words6 Pages

Micah Davis
Dr. Robyn Waller
Intro to Ethics (PHL292-004)
11/20/2014
The Case Against Brain Scans for the Prediction of Personality Traits There is much cause for concern when someone mentions the idea of scanning someone’s brain for personality traits. People tend to desire personal privacy especially when one is considering their very thoughts, characteristics, and tendencies. Just because one might have violent tendencies does not mean he or she wants them displayed to anyone without his or her willing consent (“willing consent” in this case meaning without punishment for not consenting or without reward for consenting). Besides, it might be argued that one does not have to follow the genetics with which one was born. For example, a person who is born with a violent disposition might, through therapy, experiences, or simply maturation, never become violent in action. For reasons of autonomy and privacy, it is obvious that scanning one’s brain to determine character traits as well as judging one on these scans is immoral, however different that may be to the legal validity of the use of such a mechanism of determination. Since this is a paper on ethics, it shall simply focus on the moral, and not the legal, implications. But first, …show more content…

Another concern for morality is the possible implementation of neuroimaging to screen its citizens for possible psychopathy and violent tendencies and whether or not they should incarcerate those who are found to breach a certain threshold of tendencies for violence or other criminal tendencies such as pedophilia. Although the research may reach this point and legally it could be found valid within certain legal systems to implement the research for private companies or even for government use, the real question is whether or not it is moral to use such

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